►In 1952, the Republican National Convention, which nominated General Dwight D. Eisenhower for president and Senator Richard Nixon for vice president, opened in Chicago.

►In 1963, a Navy jet fighter from Willow Grove Naval Air Station in Pennsylvania crashed into a picnic area, killing seven people; the pilot survived.

►In 1981, President Ronald Reagan announced he was nominating Arizona Judge Sandra Day O’Connor to become the first female justice on the US Supreme Court.

►In 1987, Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North began his long-awaited public testimony at the Iran-Contra hearing, telling Congress that he had ‘‘never carried out a single act, not one,’’ without authorization.

►In 2003, the Columbia investigation team found the “smoking gun” of the spaceship’s crash in February 2003 when a chunk of foam insulation fired at shuttle wing parts blew open a gaping 16-inch hole. NASA launched its second Mars rover, Opportunity. A federal judge approved a settlement fining WorldCom $750 million for its $11 billion accounting scandal.

►In 2012, jubilant Libyans chose a new parliament in their first nationwide vote in decades. The Obama administration declared Afghanistan the United States’ newest ‘‘major non-NATO ally.’’ Serena Williams won a fifth Wimbledon singles championship; about five hours later, she and sister Venus won their fifth Wimbledon doubles title together. US Representative Barney Frank married his longtime partner, Jim Ready, in a ceremony officiated by Governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts.

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